Lindenwood Open

JAY45

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The Basics
The Oklahoma State wrestling team (1-0 overall) travels to Saint Charles, Mo., to compete at the Lindenwood Open on Nov. 18. The Cowboys are sending nearly their full lineup and a total of 32 wrestlers to compete at the one-day tournament.

How to Follow
Live stats from the Lindenwood Open will be accessible on trackwrestling.com, while updates will be provided as they become available by @CowboyWrestling on X and @cowboywrestling on Instagram.

The Lindenwood Open
The 2023 rendition of the Lindenwood Open features wrestlers from 11 Division I programs, including three teams included in Intermat's most recent team tournament rankings in No. 5 Missouri, No. 7 Iowa and No. 24 Illinois. The tournament will begin at 9 a.m. CT at Robert F. Hyland Arena, with competition spanning all day until the completion of every bracket, which is likely to be around 5-6 p.m. The tournament features two divisions for each weight class, a freshman/sophomore division and open division. Oklahoma State will be entering 11 wrestlers in the freshman/sophomore brackets, while the rest of the squad will compete in the open division.

Cowboys at Lindenwood
The Cowboys have sent wrestlers to the Lindenwood Open every season since 2017 (except 2020 when the tournament was not held due to COVID-19), but Saturday marks its first time entering multiple starters. In 2022, six Cowboys competed at the tournament as Zach Blankenship, Reece Witcraft and Teague Travis all brought home first-place at their respective weight classes. Jalin Harper (3rd), Jordan Williams (6th) and Kyle Haas (6th) also wrestled in the tournament last season. In 2021, seven Cowboys earned first-place finishes, highlighted by wins from Trevor Dopps, Kyle Haas, Reece Witcraft and current starter Konner Doucet. Oklahoma State has posted 15 first-place finishers at the Lindenwood Open since 2017.

About the Cowboys
Oklahoma State is ranked No. 11 in the NWCA Coaches Poll after dominating Bucknell, 38-6, in its season opener at Gallagher-Iba Arena last Friday. A pair of returning All-Americans lead the Cowboy lineup as OSU added two more former All-Americans through the transfer portal prior to the season. Daton Fix is a four-time All-American, while Dustin Plott has earned the honor in back-to-back seasons. Northern Illinois transfer Izzak Olejnik finished eighth at NCAAs just last season at 165 pounds and Sammy Alvarezwas named a NWCA Second Team All-American in 2020 following the cancellation of the NCAA Championships. Alvarez will not be eligible to compete until the spring semester, however, due to his transfer in January. The OSU lineup has seen some movement from a season ago with weight changes from past starters, opening opportunities for a number of newcomers and unproven talent. Minnesota transfers Troy Spratley and Tagen Jamisonlook to provide support around Fix in the lower weights early in the season. Spratley moved up to No. 20 at 125 pounds in Intermat's most recent poll following his 22-3 tech fall over Bucknell's Owen Bell, while Tagen Jamison appeared at No. 22 in the ranking. Jordan Williams looks to secure the 149-pound starting role after compiling an 8-7 record while redshirting a season ago. He entered the season at No. 26 in Intermat's preseason polls, but Teague Travis earned the start in the Cowboys' season opener against Bucknell, defeating Aiden Davis, 6-1. Veterans Jalin Harper and Daniel Manibog battle for the spot at 157 pounds after the departure of Kaden Gfeller. Harper moved to No. 27 in Intermat's polls thanks to his 5-4 decision over Nick Delp last Friday. Dustin Plott's weight change allows room for standout freshman Brayden Thompson to step into the 174-pound role. Thompson was the No. 3 pound-for-pound wrestler in last year's class and has extensive experience in high-level freestyle competitions. Luke Surber and Konner Doucet round out the Cowboy lineup for the second year in a row and look to improve upon their NCAA qualifying campaigns in 2023.
 
NO. 11 OKLAHOMA STATE

125
: No. 20 Troy Spratley (1-0)
Jayce Mullin (3-0)
Sam Smith (2-1)
Alexander Yokubaitis (0-0)

133: Zach Blankenship (3-0)
Cael Hughes
Reece Witcraft (0-0)

141: No. 22 Tagen Jamison (1-0)
Andrew Bloemhof (4-0)
Mitchell Borynack (1-2)

149: Teague Travis (1-0)
Cutter Sheets (2-1)
No. 26 Jordan Williams (0-0)

157: No. 27 Jalin Harper (4-1)
Daniel Manibog (3-0)
Jeremy Manibog (0-0)
Jaxen Wright (0-0)

165: No. 6 Izzak Olejnik (1-0)

174: AJ Heeg (3-1)
Dax Hughes (2-2)
Benjamin Mower (3-1)
Blake Skidgel (2-1)

184: No. 4 Dustin Plott (1-0)
Carlos Alvarado (0-0)
Trevor Dopps (3-0)
Jersey Robb (3-0)
Evan Shetley (0-0)

197: No. 9 Luke Surber (1-0)
Kyle Haas (0-0)
Sam Sherrer (0-0)

HWT: No. 16 Konner Doucet (1-0)
Christian Carroll (2-0)

*Intermat Rankings used for individual
 
OK, having looked at results, here are my thoughts.

Lee clearly deserves a beer and pizza. Alvarez was at 141 and Williams beat Travis.

I think everyone should remember this is not top event.

Carroll lost early while Duecet won tournament. So the decision to redshirt Carroll is easy, he can't beat existing starter. Notwithstanding good showing, I don't think Doucet can AA in loaded 285 weight calss. But I will say, Doucet has shown himself to be pretty athletic. His problem is he has no offensive moves. If he can somehow develop, maybe?

At 149 Williams beat Travis 7-6. Then smoked Carter Young 15-2 in finals. Two thoughts. I thought Travis looked pretty good in Bucknell match. If he only lost 7-6 to future AA (as predicted by Lee C ) he is pretty good. And maybe he wins ranking match in future as those guys are close. Second thought, Carter Young is pretty good. But for injury he was AA, or round of 12 guy last year. And he rarely lost bad. So Williams mauling him 15-2 looks to be real deal. Third thought for free, I cannot believe the loser of Williams/Travis ranking matches cannot smoke guys at 157. Please move the loser up to 157.

At 141, Jamison beat Alvarez 4-1. Alvarez is good. So Jamison looks to be very good.

141 and 149 are key weights for Pokes. If those guys are good and can AA, Pokes look to be solid in top 10 and maybe top 5.
 
149 is a weak weight in the B12. Huge opening for Williams.

These are good problems to have, multiple guys at multiple weights. Robb, Heeg, & others had strong showings as well.
 
Robb is a guy who I think may turn out better than expected. Unlike almost all other top recruits, Robb didn't just wrestle. He played football for top(?) high school program in Oklahoma. So one might expect that now that he devotes himself totally to wrestling he will improve more than normal top recruit who has done nothing but wrestle since 6th grade.

Test for starters will come at Cliff Keen. No OSU wrestler will be favored to win. Fix is now ranked 1st, but Vito should be at CK and I think is favored. Other than Fix, no one else on team is favored to be in finals.
 
If one of Robb or Heeg can get down to 165 then they will start there next season.

Teague Travis needs to keep putting on weight to get to 157. I like Manibog and Harper there though. I think both will be able to qualify for the NCAA tournament. Just need to figure out which is best... this early it seems like it will be Manibog.
 
Also Teague Travis was a top 100 recruit coming out of high school. He was just at 133-141 until this summer. I think he was trying to get to 157.
 
Doucet has shown himself to be pretty athletic. His problem is he has no offensive moves. If he can somehow develop, maybe?

I agree that I don't think that Doucet is an AA contender in this years heavyweight (also why I advocate for Carroll's redshirt) but if he just works up enough confidence to take a shot, he certainly has the ability to finish. KD's shortcomings are all between the ears. Kid is outstandingly smart... probably overthinks things and therefore wrestles too conservative. He knows this and is working on it. I'm excited for his ceiling.
 
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